I don't know if it would be of any help in this case, but there is a quake for linux FAQ floating about on the net (sorry, don't know the URL - search for "quake", "linux" and "FAQ" at dejanews).
As for playing as normal user: have you tried setting the suid bit (as
root: chmod u+s <filename>)?
Now, if I could only get my SB working under 2.1.124...
Cheers
Dave
